The world's first foldable phone is not by Apple, LG or Samsung

A small California-based company has raced ahead of Apple, LG and Samsung to launch the world's first foldable smartphone. Royole claims its FlexPai is the "world's first commercial foldable smartphone".

The Royole FlexPai has an AMOLED screen size of 7.8-inches with a display resolution of 1,920 x 1,440 pixels when unfolded. The screen size drops to 4-inches when folded. The user interface is said to adapt to how the phone is being used.

It is powered by a next-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series mobile platform, 8GB RAM, Water OS 1.0 based on Android 9.0 and a 3,800mAh battery. Other specs include internal storage space of 128GB/256GB with microSD support up to 256GB, a dual-camera module on the front (16MP + 20MP, f/1.8, OIS), Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, A-GPS, USB Type-C, dual-SIM support (nano-SIM), fingerprint sensor and a 7.6mm thin chassis weighing 320g.

At launch, the Royole FlexPai is available for purchase in China at China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. It retails for US$1,318 (128GB) and US$1,469 (256GB).